In a city best known for fashionable beaches and world-class surf, bathers at one local watering hole take pride in the exact opposite – the no-fuss atmosphere of a giant, artificial pond. [ 27 photos total ]

It's hard to say how many animals are killed by vehicles around the world every year, but it's estimated that up to one million are killed every day on the roads of the US alone. As you can see from the list below however, some countries go to great lengths to ensure the safety of their wildlife.
The first animal bridges were built in France in the 1950s, and the longest in the world, called the Natuurbrug Zanderij Crailoo, can be found in the Netherlands and is over half a mile long! Scroll through this list, compiled by Bored Panda, to see some of the best animal crossings on the planet. Don't forget to vote for your favorite! [ 10 photos total ]

Spring has arrived early in the Eastern Japanese town of Kawazu. The small town, located just outside of Tokyo, is famous for their 8000 cherry blossom trees that bloom early every year. The lush landscapes that greet millions of visitors each February are supremely romantic.
The blossoms, known as sakura in Japanese, typically bloom in late March or early April, but Kawazu’s trees belong to a unique variety that flowers before others. A small locomotive train takes passengers on a journey through fragrant aromas and gradient shades of pink. At night, the trees are illuminated by floodlights, and their reflections dance along the still waters of the Izu peninsula.
Cherry blossoms are highly symbolic and culturally significant in Japan. The transient nature of their beauty is often equated to the brevity of life, so they not only represent the acceptance of karma and destiny, but the eventual welcoming of death. For these reasons, they appear often in Japanese art, and have become an identifying image of the country itself. [ 11 photos total ]

Makha Bucha Day in Thailand, an overflowing dam in California, the Yanshui Beehive Rockets Festival in Taiwan, alpacas in Siberia, Beyonce at the Grammys, Carnival in Venice, protests in Romania and France, and much more. [ 35 photos total ]

Who can be a better guide of New Zealand (Middle Earth) than Tolkien’s Gandalf himself? The guy has been traveling around that place for more than 2,000 years, so he probably knows his way around. That was the idea behind photographer Akhil Suhas’s 6-month trip across the country with a Gandalf costume.
Suhas called his 9,000-mile adventure #GandalfTheGuide and documented it using photos. "I wanted a recurring subject in my photos and with so many photographers visiting the country, I figured that I needed to do something to set me apart!" he said. "I was watching the LOTR for the 5th time when I figured New Zealand is famous for 2 things: its landscapes and the LOTR + Hobbit Trilogies. So why not combine the two by having Gandalf in the landscapes?"
At first, he tried self-portraits: "I tried the camera on a tripod with a timer shot, didn’t work for me," Suhas said. "So, I started asking the people I met along the way if they wanted to put on the outfit." Surprisingly, people agreed, and Suhas created an amazing small-person-big-landscape photo tour of New Zealand. [ 11 photos total ]

In the basement of a Canton home is a dusty yellow Kodak box that hasn’t been opened in a half a century. Inside lies buried treasure, the 1967 Red Sox “Impossible Dream” season captured in 4,000 black-and-white negatives. It was the year that forever changed baseball in Boston, and Frank O’Brien was just a rookie Globe sports photographer who captured it all. Read the story [ 24 photos total ]